Original article: The Block
Compiled/edited by Yuliya, PANews
In an era where stablecoins are gradually penetrating the global economy and AI and blockchain technologies are intersecting, a highly controversial and influential company is quietly building its unlimited funding crack strategy. The Block specially invited Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino to share Tethers on-chain layout ideas, tens of billions of dollars of investment directions, systematic strategies for AI and energy, and even long-term ambitions to establish an open brain-computer interface system. PANews compiled and sorted out this conversation.
A tech geek turned stablecoin boss calls on the US to strengthen regulatory protection for USDT and other currencies
Host: Welcome Paolo, can you introduce yourself to everyone and how did you get to the position of Tether CEO?
Paolo: I am a tech geek and have been writing code for 32 years. I started as a senior developer at Bitfinex, then became CTO of Bitfinex and Tether, and CEO of Tether in 2023. My philosophy has always been to build technology that can survive even in the worst-case scenario, rather than systems that only work in the best-case scenario.
Host: Tether faced a lot of doubts a few years ago, but now it has become one of the most profitable companies in the world, with profits of $13 billion last year alone. How do you view the transformation over the past few years?
Paolo: Our entire industry is still in its early stages. Tether was founded in 2014 and proposed the concept of “stable currency”.
This concept was almost ignored in the first ten years. But now, 2025 is called the first year of stablecoins and the US government is also formulating corresponding regulations, which says it all.
This process was not easy. We were building a whole new industry from scratch, which naturally created friction with the traditional financial system and encountered many obstacles, especially from the banking system. But our team never backed down and always believed in providing dollars to people who were excluded from mainstream finance.
For me personally, this was my first time really setting foot in the United States—my first time since I turned 40. In the past few years, regulatory actions like “Chokepoint 2.0” have been very unfavorable to us, but in recent exchanges on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch, I can sense that attitudes are beginning to improve.
The global influence of stablecoins is indeed growing day by day, especially in developing countries, where its role is particularly prominent. For example, the financial system in the United States is already very complete, with an efficiency of 90%, and stablecoins can increase it to 95%. But in countries like Nigeria, Argentina or Turkey, the financial efficiency may be only 10% to 20%, and if stablecoins are added, it may jump to 50%. So for these countries, stablecoins are more significant.
Regulations should also take this into account and provide appropriate safeguards for overseas issuers like USDT. USDT is a foreign stablecoin to the United States, but it is no less important, and even more important, to maintaining the global status of the dollar and purchasing U.S. Treasuries.
Host: Do you think the United States will launch its own stablecoin in the future?
Paolo: Even if the United States launches its own digital currency, stablecoins issued by the private sector will still play a vital role. The success of USDT shows that stablecoins issued by private companies can be of great help to the United States. We hold a large amount of U.S. Treasury bonds through local institutions such as Cantor Fitzgerald, and the process is extremely transparent. The United States can closely monitor us, but does not have to bear the burden of issuance and management.
Using USDT and XAUt to change the livelihood of people in high-inflation countries, education is a long-term battle
Moderator: You once shared an example of a convenience store using USDT to mark prices. Can you talk about how USDT changes peoples lives in countries with high inflation? Do you think this will become a common phenomenon?
Paolo: Unfortunately, the success of USDT is not because we do well, but because the economies of many countries are too bad. Take Turkey as an example, the annual inflation is as high as 50%, and the local currency has depreciated by 80% against the US dollar in the past few years; Argentina is even worse, with the local currency depreciating by more than 90%, and it has defaulted many times. USDT provides a safe haven for these countries.
We found that the popularity of smartphones and the high proportion of young people are key factors driving the popularity of digital dollars. From 2017 to 2020, young people became the first group to learn about cryptocurrencies. After the global epidemic broke out in 2020, these young people began to teach their parents how to use digital dollars to cope with economic difficulties. In the past 20 years, these parents were accustomed to taking risks to buy cash dollars on the black market, but the epidemic made this behavior more dangerous and inefficient. Young people learn from each other on platforms such as Discord, and then pass on knowledge to their parents, helping them to safely hold digital dollars through smartphones.
Moderator: How do you understand Tether’s role in the current geopolitical landscape, especially the extension of “Western values”?
Paolo: In my opinion, money is the ultimate social network, and the change that Tether is driving has a threefold impact.
First, we have done more effective financial inclusion than many international organizations, NGOs, and even charities. This is shocking to me - if a small company can do what they havent done in decades, it means they really need to rethink. We have truly brought financial services to hundreds of millions of people around the world who are still excluded.
Second, Tether is expanding the global use of the dollar and promoting dollar hegemony. This is not an exaggeration. We have established millions of offline touchpoints in emerging markets, from convenience store networks, phone recharge points, newsstands in Central America to rural markets in Africa, where we directly engage with them. These distribution channels can also be used for financial education and even to sell other products.
Third, we are building our own energy and financial infrastructure in Africa. In this continent with extremely low electricity coverage—600 million of the 1.4 billion people have no electricity at home—we have built solar-powered financial service kiosks. In these small villages, Tether kiosks provide rechargeable batteries for only 3 USDT per month. Residents use these kiosks to learn how to open USDT and Bitcoin wallets, save and transfer money. We have deployed 500 such kiosks in Africa, with 500,000 users and 10 million battery replacement records. It is expected to expand to 10,000 kiosks by 2026 and 100,000 by 2030, covering about 30 million African households. This is not only financial distribution, but also light distribution. We want to light up the center of the African continent, and then this distribution network will be visible from space.
Moderator: In addition to USDT, you also have Tether Gold. In countries with severe inflation, is it possible to see a return to the gold standard? Why did you launch Tether Gold?
Paolo: We start from the practicality of any product we make. If fiat currency is the lowest quality tool, then the US dollar is the best solution among fiat currencies, above it is gold, and at the top is Bitcoin.
As a currency controlled by mathematical rules, Bitcoin is unique in that it is completely determined by algorithms and codes, and is not influenced by any country or individual. In contrast, gold has been a currency recognized by mankind for 5,000 years. It is not easily manipulated by humans, and its supply is basically determined by natural laws. It will not depreciate due to inflation like legal currency. Although gold mining may increase in the future due to technological advances, the growth of its supply is still limited by natural laws. The supply of gold will only increase slowly in the future and it is impossible to double it in a few years or even ten years.
So we launched Tether Gold because it is the best asset tokenization product we can launch besides Bitcoin. Especially now, the price of gold has doubled in three years because the BRICS countries are preparing a gold-backed digital currency and building infrastructure in Africa, South America and other regions. This kind of currency is neither RMB nor ruble, but just gold-backed, which is very attractive to these emerging markets. We hope to provide an alternative before they do.
Moderator: What do people really care about? Do they just want a tool to transfer money and pay, but don’t care about the underlying technology (such as blockchain)?
Paolo: They are not interested in the blockchain itself. They are only interested in one thing - the fees should be low, almost zero.
We recommended some digital wallets to our partners and encouraged them to save USDT in these wallets. But we also found a problem: many wallets are promoting fancy features to users, such as using USDT to invest in a certain coin, participate in staking, buy NFT, etc. These behaviors are not good for family savings.
So we decided that Tether should make its own wallet for these markets, with a true savings-centric experience. We are building an open source SDK called Wallet Development Kit (WDK) that anyone can use to develop a wallet. The wallet interface will be very simple, with only two accounts: one is a daily account for USDT, and the other is a savings account that can be used to store Bitcoin and connect to decentralized yield protocols. Developers can choose to add new features, but our default version is a minimalist version for African users. We are also working with Operas MiniPay team and are looking for more partners.
We do the most Bitcoin education work in the world, but in these markets, we often encounter feedback like this: I understand Bitcoin, but I still want USDT.
This is not because people are stupid, but because they don’t have the time or resources to deeply understand Bitcoin. Many “Bitcoin maximalists” ignore this point and think that people all over the world have the conditions to study cryptocurrency, which is not the case.
Therefore, we need to use something they are familiar with, such as USDT, to build trust first, and then slowly guide them to Bitcoin. Education is a long-term battle that cannot be achieved by words, but by real actions. Tether is investing a lot of money and resources in the field to promote this process.
Adhere to ecological neutrality and provide users with the best on-chain path
Moderator: Most of Tethers on-chain circulation occurs on Ethereum and Tron. Now we see more and more stablecoin-exclusive chains emerging. What do you think of these new trends?
Paolo: Tether has never and will never create its own blockchain, and I think it is important not to cannibalize the business of our partners. There should be an open market and fair competition between different blockchains. But the problem is that on blockchains like Ethereum, transaction fees are very high. I would like to see more activity happening on chains that have a better user experience and lower fees.
Therefore, Tether plans to experiment in its new wallets and products to develop an algorithm that allows users to set up automatic bridging of part of the funds to the blockchain with the lowest transaction fee and fastest confirmation speed through USDT. This move is intended to provide a fairer ecosystem for users, especially those who cannot afford high transaction fees. In addition, the system will also support multi-chain QR code recognition to promote blockchain developers sense of responsibility for the ecosystem.
Moderator: So your vision is that Tether itself will remain completely neutral to all chains, and users dont even need to know which chain their money is being sent on, it will work seamlessly on multiple blockchains. You will choose the best path for them based on factors such as transaction fees, is that right?
Paolo: Yes. And I think its not even us who chooses for them. We want a very open, transparent, public algorithm that every blockchain can see. I dont want to be a judge and I dont want to be accused of bias. As long as the algorithm is public and everyone can see it, then everyone should be happy. It will route the transaction to the cheapest, fastest chain, thats it.
Start a multi-billion dollar investment game to exchange independence for long-term strategic initiative
Moderator: How do you think about investment strategy? What are the priorities for decision makers?
Paolo: Tether has made about $20 billion over the last two or three years. Less than 5% of that has been distributed to shareholders. The idea is that most of that should be kept in Tethers investment arm. As you mentioned, part of the excess reserves is used for over-collateralization of stablecoins, but the rest, about $14 billion or more, is now invested in different ways.
Part of it is used to expand our distribution network. For example, in Africa and Central and South America, we have invested in a large number of terminal nodes and payment infrastructure. We currently hold more than 50 to 60 portfolio companies, involving education, mobile phones, App distribution and other directions. We not only distribute digital dollars, but also Tether Gold, educational content, Apps, etc. In this way, we have established a comprehensive distribution network to further expand the currency base of USDT.
The second part is to invest in digital distribution networks, such as Rumble. It is a video platform with 70 million users. An interesting thing is that Rumble creators sold $850 million in gold between 2023 and 2024. Imagine how big the opportunity would be if Rumble launched a wallet that supports Bitcoin and Tether Gold? So we hope to combine this digital infrastructure and asset distribution.
In addition, we have longer-term but very stable investments. For example, we invested in Adecoagro, the largest single landowner in South America, which owns a large amount of farmland in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, and is also engaged in the production of agricultural products such as dairy products, rice, and bioethanol. We believe that land is close to Bitcoin and gold in scarcity. Although it is highly irreplaceable, it is still a very stable long-term asset. More importantly, Adecoagro is also exploring the use of stablecoins such as USDT for commodity trading. We believe that commodity trading will be the biggest driver of USDTs market value growth. We are negotiating with major commodity traders in the world, and they are all very interested in using USDT for settlement of commodities such as crude oil and gold because it is more efficient and cost-effective.
We also invest in Bitcoin mining and energy. The Tether Group currently holds more than 100,000 Bitcoins, and we believe that with such a large exposure, we must contribute to the security of the Bitcoin network. So we have made a lot of investments in Bitcoin mining. Although from a purely economic perspective, if you have $1 million, it may be more cost-effective to buy Bitcoin than to mine, but we invest in mining to be part of the security of the network. By the end of this year, Tether may become the worlds largest Bitcoin miner.
Finally, in the field of AI, we have invested in Northern Data, a leading AI infrastructure company with more than 24,000 H100 GPUs and its own AI RD team. We are also developing a P2P reasoning and federated learning platform called CUAC, which is inspired by Isaac Asimovs short story The Last Question, which raises the ultimate question: Can entropy be reversed? The philosophy behind this is that if we want AI to answer this question one day in the future, it must be part of the structure of the universe, not a data center system controlled by a centralized company.
Host: This structure that does not rely on external funds almost frees Tether from all IPO and shareholder profit pressure. You mentioned that this is a loophole of unlimited money. Can you explain this logic in more detail?
Paolo: Tether’s business model and stablecoin structure allow us to remain private for a long time. We don’t need to go public, raise funds, or be responsible for quarterly financial reports. This independence allows us to invest and think over a very long period of time.
For example, we invested in a company called Blackrock Neurotech (soon to be renamed), which focuses on the field of brain-computer interface. We believe that in the next 15 to 30 years, the brain will become a new intelligent terminal, equivalent to todays smartphones.
We don’t want this technology to be controlled by a centralized platform, so we are building an open source brain operating system. If I really need to implant a chip into my brain one day, I hope it is open source and not controlled by a tech giant - I am indeed a paranoid person, but this is the basis of fair competition.
Currently, the company has more than 40 patients trying the first generation of brain-computer interface chips, and the capabilities of the new generation of chips are crazy, and we are very excited about it.
Moderator: Tether has also invested in Juventus Football Club. Is this out of interest or other strategic considerations?
Paolo: Giancarlo (another Tether executive) and I have been Juventus fans since childhood, so this is indeed an “emotional investment”.
But at the same time, we also think that the Italian football system is very backward, almost like a bureaucratic machine. Football clubs should not only be about feelings, but also be run like businesses, with profits, management, the ability to buy better players, improve the communication system, and expand the fan base.
Tether can help Juventus achieve these goals. We have a global digital and physical distribution network that can promote Juventus brand to the world. In addition, many of the technology companies we invest in can also bring support to Juventus.
So, although this investment started with passion, we are also gradually injecting rationality and strategy into it.
Not only a stablecoin, Tether’s “four stability” philosophy
Paolo: When someone asks me “What kind of company is Tether?”, I say “Tether is a stable company”, which provides three kinds of “stability” to society:
Currency stability: Stablecoins are already a huge leap for emerging markets; for developed markets, Bitcoin may be more important.
Communication stability: This refers to freedom of expression. For a society to be stable, citizens must be able to communicate freely. If control over the flow of information is lost, the social structure will be unstable.
Intelligent stability: As AI develops, if it is centrally controlled, it may cause an intelligence gap that is more serious than the current currency or communication gap. For example, if the Italian government is highly dependent on OpenAIs products, and the diplomatic relations between the United States and Italy break down one day, then the entire Italian society will become stupid.
We are also building a decentralized energy system in Africa. Some people suggest that we build a nuclear power plant, but we believe that the most practical approach is to distribute it through small renewable energy nodes.
With this in mind, our vision has now changed from three stability to four stability: stable currency, stable communications, stable intelligence and stable energy. Only when these four are combined can society be truly stable.
Host: It sounds like you guys are doing a lot of philanthropic work. Is this a kind of emulation of effective altruism? Or are the shareholders wealthy enough to do these things that promote social progress?
Paolo: I don’t want to be categorized as an “effective altruist”, and we all know where that movement ended up. But we do believe that when a company has accumulated enough resources, it doesn’t have to make money from everything.
In the future, every AI agent will have a wallet, and it should be a self-hosted wallet. In 15 years, we will have a trillion AI agents. They cant all be connected to PayPal or JPMorgans servers. I think AI agents will use stablecoins and Bitcoin for transactions. If we embed a self-hosted wallet into each AI agent, there is a high probability that these AI agents will choose USDT as one of their main currencies.
This is the point I made in my Token 2049 talk. Tether is lucky because we have three things:
Technical capabilities: We not only built the worlds most widely used stablecoin system, but also developed decentralized communication platforms like Holepunch. Our technology stack is highly free and scalable.
Philosophy: We come from the Bitcoin world and we believe that freedom is the ultimate goal. Tethers ultimate goal is to defend freedom.
Capital: We have great autonomy in this regard and do not rely on venture capital. VCs are generally only willing to invest in products that can be directly controlled and monetized, and peer-to-peer products such as Keet and Holepunch are naturally uncontrollable. Therefore, we can use our own capital to build these truly open systems.
Tether is committed to maintaining its independence and avoiding becoming a negative force. Even if changes occur in the future, it hopes that the technology it creates will be able to exist independently. This is the core charm of peer-to-peer technology.
